


A Weakness for Beautiful Things

by RaeRambles



Series: How They Met [2]
Category: Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: But I've somehow managed to write a story about that that doesn't focus on either of them, But it's also a DJ AU, But my laptop died tragically and I needed to write something to cheer myself up, Cause Alec is a photographer but Magnus is a DJ, Fluff, I don't really know what this is, M/M, Magnus and Alec meet on a bus and rather inexplicably start to like each other, Photographer AU, This is short and strange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-19
Updated: 2016-03-19
Packaged: 2018-05-27 14:16:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6287884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaeRambles/pseuds/RaeRambles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alec and Magnus meet on a bus, Magnus is pretty, Alec is awkward and everything just spirals from there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Weakness for Beautiful Things

The day that they met was the kind of cold that gets into your fingers and gets caught in your eyelashes. It was the kind of cold that Alec loved and Magnus hated. Alec wasn’t wearing gloves and Magnus was. They were the last two people on the bus. 

Magnus was listening to his music too loud and Alec was trying to keep himself from dozing off. Alec was tempted to say something, but found himself unable to. Maybe it was because of the way that this stranger nodded his head in time with the music and closed his eyes like there was a scene playing out on his eyelids. Maybe it was because Alec had always had a weakness for beautiful things. 

It was that, after all, that had made Alec want to be a photographer. Something about this preservation of beauty, the ability to even attempt to capture it, enchanted him. It was the same almost-desire that made Alec’s fingers itch for the camera at his feet. There was no way that Magnus was going to notice, the music was too loud, and there was almost no chance that this person would ever stumble on Alec’s blog. 

He raised the camera up, slowly as though he were afraid of startling a wild animal, he adjusted the focus and took a few shots. Then he quickly tucked the camera back, praying the shots he’d taken had turned out like he wanted them to. 

“You know,” Magnus spoke so suddenly that Alec jumped, “if you wanted to take photos of me, it probably would have been polite to ask first.” Alec looked up, already feeling the blush rise to his cheeks. The headphones were still around Magnus’ neck and the music was still playing, but now Magnus was smiling and his eyes were open and bright. They were also beautiful and making Alec wish that he still had his camera out. 

“Sorry,” Alec mumbled, “I really should have--” 

“Yeah,” Magnus sighed, “but I’m willing to let this slide because you are hands down the most beautiful person who's ever taken a photo of me without my consent.” This sent Alec into a spluttering mess, but Magnus just smiled again, his eyes glittering. “My name’s Magnus. And you are?” 

“Alexander, but everyone just calls me Alec.” 

“Well Alexander, this has been a pleasure, but this is my stop.” Magnus gestured as the bus started to slow. “We may have to continue this at a different time.” He grabbed Alec’s hand--forcing a rather glorious squawk out of him--and scrawled his number along Alec’s pale skin. Alec didn’t even know where the pen had come from or where it returned to before Magnus winked at Alec and jauntily strode off the bus. 

\--

“He what?” 

“He wrote his phone number on my hand,” Alec said frantically, running his fingers through his hair and pacing the length of his small bedroom. “Iz, I have literally no idea what to do.” 

His sister sighed, a noise that sounded almost wraith-like on the phone. “Look, Alec, any logical person is going to tell you to just call him and say hello. Ask him out to coffee or something. You love coffee, it can’t be that hard.” 

“What if he doesn’t like coffee?” 

“Well,” Isabelle said, sounding fondly irritated, “Alec then I imagine that he will like you enough to say yes regardless of his current opinions on coffee.” 

“Ugh.” 

“How are you this frazzled by an attractive boy coming and talking to you on the bus? Shouldn’t you be excited right now?” 

“He didn’t come and talk to me,” Alec reminded her, “he caught me taking really weird stalker photos of him.” 

“Did you tell him about your blog? He might have even heard of it--” 

 

“Iz, my blog is not nearly as famous as you think it is.”

Their conversation walked in circles for a few more moments, Isabelle insistent that he should call Magnus and Alec insistent that their meeting was not exactly a meet-cute and things could only get more awkward from here. By the time she’d hung up, Alec was feeling even more twisted into knots and had no idea what he was going to do next. 

So he pulled out his camera and started to sift through the photos of the day. He’d spent the morning wandering around with Clary while she sketched different things in the park, so he had more than a few photos of her. Hanging out with Clary was odd for Alec now, because he’d gotten so used to hating her that finding her almost pleasant to be around was strange. 

It was easier when he had someone who didn’t need words to express things and who understood when Alec didn’t have the words that he wanted. Sometimes she missed the meaning, but it was enough for Alec that she tried. 

After touching up a photo of her sitting cross-legged on a bench, nothing more than her hands and the ghost of a sketch in front of her, Alec posted it to his blog. He then kept going through the photos, saving most of them and laughing at some of the sillier ones.

But then he got to the photos of Magnus. 

There were only a few, but they were just like Alec was hoping. They brought out the line of Magnus’ frame and the brightness in his eyes and the glitter in his hair. He looked like the mysterious boy that Alec met on the bus, more vibrant than the world around him and stuck in his own universe. 

Alec didn’t touch up the photo at all. He liked the way that the background was far out of focus and Magnus was crisp as anything. He liked that it wasn’t Magnus’ entire body, just half his face and stopping just below his shoulders. Alec liked that you could see Magnus reflected in the window of the bus. It didn’t quite do him justice, but it was close. Close enough for Alec to post.

The next day, Alec woke up to a flooding of questions in his tumblr inbox. 

He was used to the notes that came from a new photo on his blog--being vaguely tumblr famous was bizarre but had become familiar to him. But it was unusual that he got this many questions and when he opened the inbox, almost every single one was about Magnus. 

Magnus, who was apparently, famous. 

Alec blinked at the screen, confused, mind still fuzzy from sleep and trying to figure out how the hell everyone seemed to know who Magnus was. And then, in that moment of still half-asleep confusion and curiosity, Alec phoned Magnus. 

“Hello?” Magnus sounded amused and melodic. Alec was blushing almost instantly. 

“Hi, it’s Alec, uh from--” 

“From the bus.” 

“Yeah,” Alec felt a little flutter in his chest that Magnus had remembered him. “I’m just calling cause--” 

“You,” Magnus said, interrupting him again, “not realizing, I guess, that someone would see my face and recognize it, posted a photo of me on your already famous photo blog and start an internet explosion.” 

“An internet what?” 

“I’m guessing you don’t have twitter?” 

“Nope. I’m just calling because I wanted to talk to you and I also kind of wanted to figure out why every teenage girl on tumblr thinks I should know who you are.” 

“My pride is slightly wounded that you don’t.” 

“You could have told me that you were famous.” 

“You could have told me that you run a famous photo blog.” 

“True.” 

“So,” Magnus said, “basically now everyone is just trying to figure out what the link is between us.” 

“What is the link between us?” 

“Well, I am a kind of famous DJ and you are the cute photographer boy from the bus--” 

“You’re a DJ?” 

“--And I would very much like to take you out to coffee.” 

“What?” Alec was floored, up until this moment he’d imagined that he’d be the one to ask Magnus out, that he was far more interested in Magnus than Magnus was in him. 

“Do you not like coffee?” 

Alec couldn’t help but smile at the sudden confusion in Magnus’ voice. “No,” Alec said softly, “I love coffee.” 

“Brilliant.” 

And by the time they were off the phone, Alec still knew very little about Magnus other than him being a DJ and somehow famous, but he did know that Magnus was going to be in a specific coffee shop at noon the next day, and that he would be waiting for Alec. 

\--

“Well, if it isn’t my favourite photographer.” 

Magnus’ voice was like honey on warm bread and it seeped over Alec’s cold cheeks. The coffee shop was almost exactly what Alec had been expecting: a little strange and weirdly music themed. Magnus fit in perfectly. Alec felt as though he stuck out like a sore thumb, but was hoping that Magnus wouldn’t notice. 

“So,” Alec said softly, “how are you?” 

“Better now that you’re here.” 

“I hope you realize that when you say things like that, I have literally nothing to say back that isn’t nonsense.” 

Magnus laughed, the kind of high open laugh of someone that has learned not to fear loving their own skin. His eyes glimmered and he nodded. “Fair enough, now order some coffee, sit your ass down and talk to me.” 

Alec snorted and mumbled something under his breathe. 

Magnus looked affronted, “did you just call me bossy?” 

“No,” Alec mocked, putting a hand to his chest, “I would never dare.” 

“Sassy,” Magnus noted, as though he were planning on making a field guide for behavioural patterns in Alecs around the world, “I like that.” 

Alec rolled his eyes, but couldn’t do anything to keep the smile off of his face. He ordered a plain black coffee, because he wasn’t sure he trusted anything else that was on the menu, and made his way back to where Magnus was sitting. 

“So,” Magnus said, “tell me about yourself.” 

“Uh,” Alec paused, “what do you want to know?” 

“I’m not sure, anything? What do you like to do? Where are you from? Friends, siblings, victims you’ve lead to an untimely demise?” 

“I like photography,” Alec offered. 

“I like music,” Magnus shot back, “but I figured as much.” 

“Are we going to address the strange stalker photo that I posted on the internet and the hordes of fangirls that now think I’m proposing marriage to you?” 

Magnus’ mouth quirked up in a smile. “No, because I stomped on those rumours this morning by pretending like it never happened. We’re just going to go about our lives. I love that people connect to my music, but that doesn’t entitle them to owning every single piece of my life. I know that’s why you’ve never done any self portrait stuff or anything. That’s not their business. I can go on coffee dates with all the cute photographers in the world if I chose, they do not own me, I own me.” 

“I feel the need to applaud,” Alec said softly, “I’m not sure if I’m applauding you for the speech or me for managing to get a date out of a creepy bus photo, but someone needs to be commended for this.” 

The laugh burst out of Magnus again and Alec couldn’t help but join in. 

\--

Slowly, the hype around the photo disappeared. But Alec and Magnus continued to grow closer. They weren’t quite dating, they never held hands or did anything remotely physical--partially because they didn’t want to attract attention and partially because Alec didn’t think there was huge importance in it. He liked Magnus as a person and didn’t need to kiss him to know that that was true. 

So gradually he let Magnus in, let Magnus see all the photos he’d never posted. He took more photos of Magnus, never his face because he didn’t want to start a riot, but his hands and his hair. Things that could have belonged to anyone if you didn’t know any better. 

And in exchange, some days Magnus played his music for Alec. Things that people had heard and things that no one knew existed yet, things that had only ever been heard by Magnus. 

“So why do you really like music?” Alec asked, on one of those days. They were sitting on Magnus’ couch, their knees touching. There were two cups of quickly cooling tea on the coffee table and Magnus’ laptop was next to them. He was trying to find the song that he wanted to play for Alec and Alec could tell by the way that Magnus fidgeted with the headphones in his hands that he was the first to hear this one. 

“It’s like,” Magnus shook his head, tapping his foot a little, “do you ever not have any words at all? Like you can feel something that demands to be let out, but you don’t have the right words, enough words, to make anyone understand what you mean?” 

“Yeah,” Alec said softly, “I know what you mean.” 

“When I was a kid I always got mad that people couldn’t understand,” Magnus continued, turning the headphones over in his hands. His voice went quiet and soft the way it always did when he was being honest and letting down the mask of indifference he tended to favour. “And I wanted to make them understand. And so I found music. It can have words, yes, but it always has a heartbeat. Like photography. You can add words or explain yourself, but it doesn’t need that, it can exist and breathe and speak all on its own--” 

Maybe it was because he understood the language that Alec was speaking, that he wasn’t a rough translation like Clary or so hopeless it might as well have been google translate like Isabelle. Maybe it was the way that the light caught his eyes and made them flash gold. Maybe it was the sound of Magnus’ voice, rough and soft like he was whispering words only ever meant for the two of them. 

Maybe it was because Alec had always had a weakness for beautiful things. 

Alec leaned in and turned Magnus’ head gently so that their lips met. The headphones fell into Magnus’ lap and his nimble fingers found purchase in Alec’s hair. It was like Alec had broken down some kind of barrier by making the first move and Magnus was all of a sudden everywhere, like the rush of music into a room. He cleared out every thought from Alec’s head until the only thing left was Magnus’ teeth pulling at his bottom lip and the sound of their heartbeats. 

“I’ve been waiting to for that for weeks now,” Magnus said breathlessly when they pulled away. He’d rumpled Alec’s hair beyond repair and was looking slightly dishevelled himself. But there was a glow in his eyes that Alec had never seen before--and he liked it. 

“What?” 

“I didn’t want to scare you off,” Magnus smiled, looking almost shy, “so I’ve been waiting for you to make the first move. I was beginning to think that it was never going to happen.” 

“Oh.” Alec looked down at his feet, feeling a little bit embarrassed that it had been his own hesitancy holding them back. 

“But at the same time,” Magnus continued, “after a little while I didn’t care if you were going to kiss me anymore. I mean, I wanted you to, but I also just wanted you to stay whatever that entailed.” 

“I’ve always thought that photography was the only way that I’d ever be able to really communicate without words,” Alec said softly, “but I think that this works too.” 

He leaned in and kissed Magnus again. He could feel that bright, brilliant laugh bubble up in Magnus’ chest, but Alec kissed him breathless and then some, because somehow, for once Alec felt like someone was speaking the same strange and wordless language he was.


End file.
